


“You call this cooking?”

by moonice20408



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Fluff, gender neutral reader, spencer reid can not cook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29867256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonice20408/pseuds/moonice20408
Summary: You always cook dinner, so Spencer wants return the favour. He just can’t cook.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader, Spencer Reid/You
Kudos: 28





	“You call this cooking?”

**Author's Note:**

> First reader insert, let’s go! I’ve also tried not to give any description to the reader, but please let me know if something does, and I’ll change it.

It had been a long day. Work had been busy, and after one too many rude interactions with members of the general public, you wanted nothing more than to wrap up in something cosy and eat until you slept. The one silver lining of the day however, was Spencer. He had rung you this afternoon on your lunchbreak, telling you that he was just about to get on the jet home.

“And I’ll be back in time for dinner.” He told you excitedly. “I erm, I mean if you wanted to have dinner together, t-that is.”

You couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face. The two of you had been together a little over six months now, and he still got nervous. “Of course I want to have dinner together Spencer.”

“Okay, good.” He sighed in relief over the phone. 

“I should be home on time, so feel free to let yourself in if you get there before me.” 

He had a key to your place already. You’d never given anyone a key before, never mind this early in a relationship. But a few months ago, he had come over knocking on your door in the middle of the night. He’d not long gotten home from a particularly gruesome case, and just wanted to see you. You had opened the door, ready to yell at whoever was waking you up at this ungodly hour, only for your heart to drop at the sight of Spencer. He just looked so sad. He didn’t often go into the exact details of cases, but you could tell it was difficult to let some go. And you were sure the fact he couldn’t forget them only made it worse. The two of you didn’t speak, you just took his hand and lead him to bed. Holding him till he finally drifted off to sleep. The next morning he wouldn’t stop apologising for waking you up.

_ _ _ _ _

“No, it’s not fair of me to bring this down on you too. It’s my job, not yours.” He had told you.

“And I want to be here for you when you need me.” You took his hand in yours. “I’m not going to force you to talk about it if you don’t want to. But I don’t want you to have to deal with anything on your own either.”

He squeezed your hand. “I’m just… I’m sorry.”

The two of you sat together on the sofa for a while before you had the idea. Spencer had frowned at you questioningly as you sat up staring at him. 

“One second.” You told him before leaving the room.

You stood in front of him moments later, holding a sliver key out to him.

He looked at it, then to you, then back to the key. “Are… are you sure?”

“Yes. This way you can come over when you need to, and I don’t have to get out of bed.” You laughed a little, trying to make light of the situation. The thought of doing this hadn’t even crossed your mind until moments ago. But you never regretted it. Everything just felt right with Spencer, and despite not knowing him that long, you couldn’t imagine life without him.

_ _ _ _ _ 

Having dinner together was a regular occurrence now. You had made him promise to come over for a decent home cooked meal at least once a week after he let slip he’d been living of snacks and takeout most his life. So, as you trudged up the stairs of your apartment building, you were trying to remember what was in your refrigerator that you could cook with. You were due to go shopping tomorrow, but you could throw something simple together tonight. 

Reaching your door, you rummaged through your bag to find your keys. But just as you fished them out, you heard a loud clang coming from inside. You hesitated for a moment, and leaned an ear closer to the door. You could just about make out a rather frustrated man’s voice, faint but it was defiantly Spencer. Listening for a moment more, and hearing nothing, you slowly unlocked the door. 

“Spencer?” You called out, poking your head around the door. “That you?”

“Oh! Hey! You’re back!” His loud voice wavered slightly, coming from the closed door to your kitchen. “Oh no.” You heard him say much quieter.

You frowned to yourself. Normally he’d wait watching TV, or reading, on the rare occasions he beat you home. “Spence? What are you doing?”

“Wait there!” He yelled back. His voice still slightly panicky. 

Setting your bag down and hanging your coat up, you could hear him shuffling around. The kitchen door opened and closed again, and Spencer rounded the corner. He rushed over, and draped his arms around you.

“Hey. I missed you. How was your day?” He asked you quickly. 

You pulled away, looking at him with narrowed eyes. He looked away from you and shifted on his feet. “You’re being weird, why are you being weird?” 

“Well, umm… you see I-”

“Are you cooking?” You raised an eyebrow, as you glanced at the oven mitt in his hand, smirking a little. Spencer hadn’t cooked anything in the time you’d known him. You weren’t sure he knew how. 

“Well I-”

He was cut off by the smoke alarm in your kitchen. 

Your smirk fell, and you moved around him and opened the door to a plume of smoke.

“Jeez!” You waved your arms around in a poor attempt to waft the smoke away. 

Spencer pushed passed you and went quickly to the oven, pulling out whatever it was that was burning and placing it on the stove. You swiftly followed in behind him, and opened the small window, watching the smoke flow through. Turning back, you saw Spencer standing hunched over, staring sadly at the ‘food’ on the tray.  
You huffed out a laugh at the sight, and he turned his head to look at you with sad eyes as the alarm stopped blaring. 

“Care to explain why you almost set my kitchen on fire?” You smirked at him, crossing your arms over your chest. 

A slight blush crept its way up his face. “You always cook. And I’ve watched you do it, and I’ve watched Rossi do it, and I’ve read enough books... And you sounded tired when I spoke to you earlier so I wanted to cook for you instead. I just… didn’t think it would be this hard!” His hands flailed around in frustration.

You could tell he was upset, but you really couldn’t stop yourself from smiling as you walked over to him. He was trying to do something nice for you after all. Picking up a fork from the counter, you poked at the… well you weren’t sure what it was exactly. Your other arm wrapped around his back and you gave him a slight squeeze. “This your first-time doctor?” You asked, trying to make him smile. It didn’t work.

“I just wanted to do the cooking so you could relax for a change.” He said mumbled.

Sighing, you looked him dead in the eye, and kept your tone level. “You call this cooking?” 

He groaned loudly and pulled away from you, and you started laughing again. 

“Spence, it’s okay. Really.” You smiled, holding your hand out to him.

“No it’s not!” He cried. “How many times do I come over and you’ll make me something cause you know I’ve had a long day, or a bad case, or that I just haven’t eaten properly for a few days? No one’s ever done that for me before I met you!”

Your smile dropped as he started to get very genuinely upset. You realised soon in your relationship that he put too much pressure on himself to figure everything out. But you also figured most people went to him for answers about anything and everything, and he’d work himself up if he didn’t have them. A downside to being a genius.

“Spence-”

“And for the first time in months I get here first, a-and have the chance to do the same for you and I- I ruin it!” He pressed his fists to his eyes.

“Okay, hey, come here.” You moved to him, and wrapped your fingers around his wrists to uncover his face. He frowned and dropped his head, breathing heavily.   
“Look at me.” 

But he kept his eyes on the ground. So, you waited for a moment, as his breathing evened out a little, and then moved your hands to cup his face, stroking his cheeks with your thumbs. 

“Look at me.” You said quietly. This time his eyes flickered up to meet yours. “You’ve not ruined anything, okay?”

He just huffed. So, you pulled him closer to you, wrapping your arms around his neck, as he wrapped his around your waist. The two of you stood like that for a while, before Spencer broke the silence.

“I just wanted to do something nice for you.” He muttered into your neck.

You pulled back; your hands gently rubbed his upper arms as you smiled softly at him. “You read to me, and show me fun magic tricks. Take me to the museums and tell me about everything in there. And I know you let me win last time I played poker with you. You do plenty of nice things for me, Spencer Reid.” He held your gaze, biting the inside of his lip.

“You do plenty of nice, non-food related, things for me.” 

His lips twitched at that, and his head dropped back to your shoulder. You felt his body shake in a silent laughter. “Not funny.” He muttered, but his tone was lighter than before.

You pushed his shoulders back to look at him, grin on your face. “It’s a little funny.” And he smiled back now.

He took a long sigh, before glancing around the kitchen. “Sorry...” 

“Nothing to be sorry for.” You leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He looked at you, and you could see that sad look in his eyes start to take over again. “How about we do it your way tonight?” You asked, hoping to distract him from whatever not happy thoughts he was letting take over his mind. “We’ll order something in, and if you want, I can show you some good beginner recipes tomorrow.”

He smiled. “Okay, that sounds good.”

Nodding, you gave his hand a quick squeeze. “Good. Now I’m going to go change, and you can tidy up my kitchen.” You smirked.

His mouth dropped comically, and it looked as though he was going to argue. But you raised an eyebrow as if daring him to. He snapped his mouth shut and just nodded. 

“Smart man.” You smiled at each other, and then made your way to find comfier clothes.


End file.
